WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1860
564
To WILLIAM L. DAvmsoN 1 Executive Department, Austin, March 30, 1860.
Hon. William Davidson, Chief Justice of Burnet County Sir : I enclose you an order to Mr. Banta which you will see delivered. I regret that you have been deceived, the more so because the people of your county are the sufferers. Unity of action is necessary and besides neither the people of Burnet County, nor the people of the State can support two detach- ments in your County. The arms were delivered to Banta in the belief that you had mustered him into service. Nothing but a desire to relieve the people of Burnet from Indian troubles would have induced me to have sent the arms &c. without the proper certificates having been present. Sam Houston. 1 Execu.tive Rec~rds, 1859-1861, p. 117; also Governo1·s' Letters, Texas State Library. William Lott Davidson, jurist, lawyer, Indian fighter, was born in Talla- hatchie County, Mississippi, June 26, 1838. His father, A. H. Davidson, moved to Texas in 1839, and settled near San Antonio, subsequently open- ing up a plantation at Eagle Lake. The boy was educated in the common schools of Texas, and at Davidson College, North Carolina. Upon gradu- ation from college young Davidson returned to Texas to become a member of the celebrated ranger force. He served under "Big Foot" Wallace and Callahan, and throughout the 1850's rendered distinguished service in that famous organization. During Houston's term as Governor of Texas, he served in a minute company under Jim Brown, being orderly sergeant of that company until it enlisted in the Confederate Army at the outbreak of the Civil War. This company was under the command of General Tom Green, and saw most of its service during the war on the western fron- tier. It was engaged in the New Mexico expedition and fought at the battle of Val Verde, February 21, 1862. While serving with the rangers, Judge Davidson was wounded several times; he was also wounded at ·the battle of Val Verde. After the close of the war he returned to his law practice, and in 1866 was elected county attorney for Fort Bend County, and held that position until removed by order of the military commandant of Texas. Subsequently he was elected county attorney of Goliad County, and then of Victoria County, and later was district attorney for three or four dif- ferent districts. His last political responsibility was as county attorney of Fort Bend County. He was elected to that office in 1994, and served till 1908 at which time he retired and took up private practice again. He ,, was married, June 26, 1867, to Eliza Jane Calder, daughter of R. J. Calder of San Jacinto fame. See L. E. Daniell, Personnel of the Texas State GO'IJ- e1·mnent with Sketches of Distinguished Texans, 421-423; Johnson-Barker, Texas and Texans (19).4), III, 1292-1293; Mamie Yeary, Reminiscenc.es of the Boys in Gray, 174-175.
Powered by FlippingBook